Hand presses of the aforementioned kind are used in households in many different ways, in particular as garlic presses. Commercially available garlic presses exhibit a simple lever transmission. A first handle is attached for this purpose to a press cylinder for the garlic, of which the bottom is perforated with a large number of openings. A second handle is attached to a press piston, which is guided in the press cylinder. In addition, the handles are attached to one another in a pivoting fashion, so that a lever action occurs between the handles on the one hand and the press cylinder and the press piston on the other. Garlic presses of this kind are previously disclosed, for example, in US-A 2002/069769, EP-A 1 106 125, U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,237 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,562.
The lever action of such a garlic press is frequently not adequate, however, with the result that high pressure forces must be applied to the handles in order to press out the garlic. This leads rapidly to fatigue.
It has accordingly been proposed in DE-U 201 16 151 to attach a first handle to the press cylinder in a pivoting fashion, to attach a second handle to the first handle in a movable fashion via a guide link, and to articulate both the press cylinder and a press piston in a pivoting fashion on the second handle. The transmission of force from the handles onto the press cylinder and the press piston is, in fact, improved by this “articulated lever mechanism”. However, the press piston and the press cylinder describe a strong angular movement in conjunction with the filling and pressing sequence, which makes handling difficult and, in particular, requires the exact alignment of the press piston to enable it to be introduced into the press cylinder.